The Comparative Politics of Labor-Initiated Reforms

Abstract

This article explores the reasons why some reform initiatives launched by the Swedish labor movement have succeeded and others have failed. It presents four case studies: two success stories (the pension reform of 1959 and the industrial democracy reforms of the 1970s), and two failures (inheritance taxation in the 1920s and 1940s, and wage-earner funds in the 1970s). The article casts these case studies in an analytical framework that emphasizes three variables. To the extent that they challenge the interests of capital, labor's reform initiatives are likely to precipitate a powerful countermobilization, but the politics of reformism are also shaped by the extent to which labor's initiatives embody a universalistic conception of social justice and/or appeal to the material interests of swing voters.